A controlling method for a cooling path upstream whereof is located a finishing train for rolling hot strip metal is known from DE 199 63 186 A1. With that controlling method, points on the strip and their initial temperatures are registered when the hot strip runs into the cooling path and the registered points on the strip are individually assigned desired temperature gradients. The points on the strip, their initial temperatures, and their desired temperature gradients are routed to a model for the cooling path. The points on the strip are route-tracked during their passage through the cooling path. The hot strip is subjected in the cooling path to temperature influences by means of temperature-influencing devices. The route-tracking data and the temperature influences are likewise routed to the model. The model determines expected actual temperatures of the registered points on the strip in realtime and assigns these to the points on the strip. The temperature is thereby available for each point on the strip at any time as a function over the strip thickness. On the basis of the desired temperature gradients assigned to the registered points on the strip and of the expected actual temperatures, the model furthermore determines drive values for the temperature-influencing devices and routes said drive values thereto. Temperature controlling serves especially to selectively establish material and structural properties of the hot strip metal, with said temperature controlling being as a rule embodied in such a way that a pre-determined reel temperature gradient is achieved as well as possible from the output of the cooling path.